The operating temperatures of the combustion gases utilized in the turbines of jet aircraft such as the 747 and DC10 reach approximately 2,000.degree. F or more thus can produce melting of most commercially available metals. Because of this, engine designers have developed new alloys for use in fabricating turbine blades. Further, in order to permit the blades to effectively perform in the high temperature atmosphere, the blades are typically coated with intermetallic aluminide or metal-based overlay coatings. One ceramic based coating that was examined in the past is a Ni-20 chromium bond coating with a ZrO.sub.2 -CaO barrier coating. The coating has only modest adherence and frequent;y suffers from partial or fatal barrier spallation or thermal shock cracking after relatively short periods of exposure to high temperature combustion gases. Further, the calcia stablized zirconia is gradually graded so that the surface layer is 100% stabilized zirconia. This causes quality control and adherence problems. Moreover, the method of application required to produce the graded layer is tedious,
Coatings utilizing NiCrAlY and other complex aluminized coatings have been proposed (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,869,779; 3,846,159; and 3,676,085). Further, U.S. Pat. No. 3,410,716 (Hiltz) discloses that zirconium dioxide can form a component of an oxide composition that bonds well to tungsten substrates. The Hiltz patent also discloses that magnesium oxide and yttrium oxide in small amounts may be utilized for stabilization purposes.